US jobless claims surge to 450,000greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread |
Thursday, September 27 8:48 PM SGTUS jobless claims surge to 450,000
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (AFP) -
The number of people making new US unemployment benefit claims soared by 58,000 to a nine-year high of 450,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The total, the highest number since the week ended July 25, 1992, exceeded Wall Street analysts' expectations for a figure of 440,000 in the week to September 22.
It is hard to quantify the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a Labor Department spokeswoman said. But she added that the number of new claims had surged 11,000 in raw figures in New York state.
-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), September 27, 2001